Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims fell again last week to a low summer-time level. Claims had been running higher than usual earlier in the summer, but have fallen steadily during July. Claims also are lower than they were the same time last year, which had been the usual case for most weeks in 2017. For the week of July 29, 2017, there were 320 claims, down 56 from the previous week's total and 42 fewer than than they were a year ago.

Altogether 3,853 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 69 from a week ago, and 571 fewer than a year ago.

Claims during the summer usually hold at a relatively low level because of vacation hiring, until the next transition when school resumes in September.

As expected, by industry, Services reported the most claims (52 percent of the total). Manufacturing fell to 17 percent of the total after a brief spike the previous week.

byBill SchubartI’m losing my war against field mice. This time they chewed through the power cord to the freezer. So, with the freezer thawing, it’s time for a family cookout.I’m pulling chunks of hoarfrost-covered packages out and sorting them on the garage floor. The 3, 4, 5-year old labels are illegible. Let’s see, this looks like liver – but lamb, venison, beef, or pork? These round things must be organs. That’s a chicken, or is it the wild turkey our lawn-mower guy gave us?

My worldly wife spent some of her youth in France where people eat much more of an animal than we finicky Americans do, like tripe, trotters, head cheese, veal kidneys, pork cheeks, sweetbreads, and the like. So, when we buy whole animals from neighboring farms she does the butcher’s cut chart. Most people get some 120 pounds of pork from the average Vermont pig. Not us. We get closer to 150 lbs. The unmentionables all add up.

Vermont Business MagazineThe Department of Public Service today announced $547,500 in grant awards tointernet service providers to boost broadband internet speeds in seven rural Vermont communities. The Department awarded $72,500 to ECFiber to bring fiber optic cable service to 31 homes and businesses in the towns of Randolph, Royalton and Stockbridge. Consolidated Communications, Inc. received $175,000 to expand broadband to 162 homes and businesses in Reading, Woodstock and Whitingham. Comcast received a grant of $300,000 to bring much needed high-speed cable broadband service to 114 homes and businesses in the town of Cavendish.

by Mike SmithDuring the last gubernatorial election, and then again just recently during the debate over teachers’ health insurance, Vermont Democrats underestimated the potency of GovernorPhil Scott’s affordability message.

by Joyce Marcel Vermont Business Magazine “My passion is to solve climate change with the electric grid,” says Christine Hallquist, the visionary head of the Vermont Electric Cooperative, Inc and — in another in a long line of Vermont firsts — the first CEO in America to transition openly from male (David) to female (Christine). One year, he was the moderator at the Hyde Park Town Meeting; the next year she was.

Vermont Business MagazineThe Burlington Electric Department today is warning customers about an ongoing bill payment phone scam targeting primarily Burlington restaurants and encouraging them to sign up for scam alert notifications from the Attorney General’s Office. In a new wave of calls today, Burlington Electric customers have been receiving calls threatening disconnection if payment is not made immediately.

These calls are not from Burlington Electric, and customers should hang up if they receive a call with such demands. If customers have any questions about their account status, they should call Burlington Electric at802.865.7300to let us know.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Education Child Nutrition Program will host more than 350school food service directors, managers and staff, principals, administrative assistants, business managers, superintendents, farm-to-school coordinators, and nurses who work on child nutrition at theChild Nutrition Programs Summer Institutein Streeter Hall at St. Johnsbury AcademyAugust 7-11, 2017.

Orientation for New Food Service Directors, cooking from scratch, menu planning, after school snack options, breakfast after the bell, cashier boot camp, and civil rights requirements in child nutrition programs are among the 40 courses offered during the five days.

by Paul Cillo Public Assets Institute Vermont is lucky. Even with divided state government and occasional partisan spats, our leaders on both sides of the aisle can agree that taking health care away from millions of Americans is a bad idea. At a conference I attended in Boise, Idaho last week, state-level policy leaders from around the country discussed the potential impact of the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Many of them were fighting to convince their governors, senators, and representatives that slashing Medicaid funding, disrupting the individual insurance market, and putting their constituents’ health in danger would be devastating.

Vermont Business Magazine Champlain College is one of the nation's best institutions for undergraduate education, according to The Princeton Review. The education services company features the school in the new 2018 edition of its college guide, "The Best 382 Colleges." Only about 15 percent of America's 2,500 four-year colleges and two colleges outside the US are profiled in the book, which is one of The Princeton Review's most popular guides. Published annually since 1992, it has detailed profiles of the colleges with rating scores in eight categories. The book also has ranking lists of top 20 schools in 62 categories. All of the ranking lists are based on The Princeton Review's surveys of students attending the colleges.

Vermont Access NetworkThe Vermont Public Utility Commission (formerly the Vermont Public Service Board) on Thursday refused Comcast Cable’s motion to make changes to its upcoming 11-year Certificate of Public Good (Docket 8301). Comcast claimed that the Commission lacked the authority or evidence to require the company to upgrade its interactive program guide (IPG), offer public cable drops, make line extensions, and offer institutional data networks. The Commission rejected all of Comcast’s arguments and will make no changes to its initial order issued in January 2017.

Vermont Business Magazine Students graduating veterinary school have an average student loan debt of over $162,000 according to a survey of the American Veterinary Medical Association. This is a crushing amount of debt for young veterinarians just starting out in their career and can take decades to pay off. The Vermont Veterinary Medical Association Foundation’s mission is to provide scholarships for Vermonters attending veterinary school to help lower the debt load they face upon graduation.

Vermont Business Magazine Safety-Kleen Systems, Inc, has admitted to violations of Vermont’s Hazardous Waste Management Rules at its Barre, Vermont location. Safety-Kleen has agreed to pay the State $25,000 in civil penalties for the violations. Under the court-approved settlement, Safety-Kleen admitted liability for nine separate violations of the Hazardous Waste Management Rules and related hazardous waste facility permits. These include rules relating to how hazardous waste is stored, record keeping, and facility maintenance. The Agency of Natural Resources discovered the violations during inspections in the summer of 2016.

After notice from the Agency, Safety-Kleen took corrective steps at the Barre facility to address the violations to the satisfaction of the Agency. The Attorney General’s Office notes that Safety-Kleen cooperated with the State on the settlement and acted swiftly to accept responsibility for its conduct.